Royal Ploughing Ceremony

This last Monday, May 11, was the annual Royal Ploughing Ceremony and also the day I finally got an appointment for a haircut.  I took the mass transit rail lines into the city for the first time in two months.

The Royal Ploughing Ceremony is an ancient Indian rite that spread throughout much of Southeast Asia long ago and marks the start of the rice growing season.  Although Thai people are overwhelmingly Buddhist, there are still a few old Hindu traditions, especially surrounding Thai monarchs, that involve Brahmin priests.  The date for this ceremony is set every year by these Brahmins using astrological formulas, and they are also central to the ritual itself.  Two magnificent white oxen are decorated, yoked, and led around a sacred field by Brahmins, ploughing a circle of furrows, while seeds of rice are tossed over the prepared ground. 

The ceremony is usually televised, with the King in attendance, and is quite an ornate pageant to see.  I didn’t see it on TV this year, as I was traveling into the city, and I suspect it was held without crowds because of the pandemic. 

The Thai governments are cautiously starting to re-open aspects of the lockdown.  Barber shops have just opened again, with strict regulations, so I scheduled a haircut appointment for Monday.  Since no other stores or cinemas are open, I left my backpack behind and only took a satchel and an umbrella.  The trains were quite empty at midday – although I hear that rush hours are more crowded again. 

As I returned, getting off at the station closest to home, the skies had darkened and the wind picked up in gusts.  It was a welcome coolness to our otherwise 100*F days.  I stopped in to my pharmacy for some things, and when coming out it started lightly raining.  I unfurled my umbrella and walked the kilometer home in the delightfully cool rainy breeze. 

-Zenwind. 

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